Marc Bousquet does interviews with "Faculty on Food Stamps." (1, 2, 3) He also has a book and a blog called How the University Works (pdf) where he writes about higher education. (pdf) Bousquet recently sat down to discuss some of these issues with NPR and Goucher College President Sanford Ungar. (pdf)
posted by anotherpanacea on Dec 4, 2008 - 36 comments

Forbes Magazine has compiled a ranking of the top 569 undergraduate institutions in America. Designed to compete with the venerable U.S. News and World Report rankings, Forbes offers a different methodology and some controversial results. [more inside]
posted by sy on Aug 23, 2008 - 60 comments

Commando Performance: (Toy) Guns on Campus Post-Virginia Tech - A fun game of tag for campus geeks? Or a celebration of immaturity and glorification of war and violence? Playing Humans v. Zombies after the Virginia Tech Massacre. [more inside]
posted by longdaysjourney on Apr 12, 2008 - 31 comments

On average, college students are having a medium amount of sex.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane on Sep 23, 2007 - 59 comments

Tulane University Emergency Information This informational website -- almost a blog -- has replaced Tulane's regular home page, and I found it strangely compelling as it described the encroaching emergency day by day. It set me to thinking about institutional " crisis management plans" and programs in disaster management. Can you plan for a disaster with rational management science, or is it an illusion?
posted by realcountrymusic on Sep 1, 2005 - 16 comments

MIT students pull prank on conference. "In a victory for pranksters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a bunch of computer-generated gibberish masquerading as an academic paper has been accepted at a scientific conference." The paper's title? "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy."
posted by adrober on Apr 14, 2005 - 24 comments

Easy grades, light reading loads, and above all a professor you can enjoy. Today’s university culture is one of all entertainment all the time.. an essay by Mark Edmunson based on his new book Why Read? about the the "crisis in the humanities", called the most provocative look since Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind. (via Arts and Letters Daily)
posted by stbalbach on Oct 1, 2004 - 54 comments

The Sakai Project, an open-source course-management software program for educational institutions is being publicly released today. Backed by the University of Michigan, Indiana University at Bloomington, MIT, and Stanford, Sakai hopes to free Universities from commercial products, which have reportedly become increasingly expensive. Here's a nice little write-up from the Chronicle of Higher Ed.
posted by Ufez Jones on Jul 15, 2004 - 8 comments

Bono's commencement address to U.Penn. "The world is more malleable than you think and it's waiting for you to hammer it into shape.... That's what this degree of yours is, a blunt instrument. So go forth and build something with it." [via Ed]
posted by rory on Jun 2, 2004 - 46 comments

Bobst Boy gets evicted. Sort of. Steve Stanzak is an NYU sophomore who supplemented his living expenses by living in the Bosbt Library. Stanzak has been blogging about this, and after his weblogging was discovered by NYU administrators, he was given housing for the remainder of the year.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Apr 26, 2004 - 42 comments

HR 3077 - "unprecedented federally mandated intrusion into the content and conduct of university-based area studies programmes."

"There is a great deal at stake for American higher education and academic freedom. If HR 3077 becomes law - the Senate will review the bill next - it will create a board that monitors how closely universities reflect government policy. Since the legislation assumes that any flaw lies 'with the experts, not the policy', the government could be given the power to introduce politically sympathetic voices into the academic mainstream and to reshape the boundaries of academic inquiry. Institutional resistance would presumably be punished by the withdrawal of funds, which would be extremely damaging to Middle East centres especially."

you didn't have reason to call your congressperson tomorrow? you do now. frightening.

via the excellent openbrackets.com
posted by specialk420 on Apr 16, 2004 - 67 comments

College Cost Crisis (pdf alert) Tuition at universities continue to mount. This recent Congressional report chronicles this increase- but places the blame squarely on the Universities. Do you buy it?
posted by SandeepKrishnamurthy on Sep 18, 2003 - 43 comments

College Rankings! Seems like everyone's talking about 'em. There's the good ole controversial US News & World Report rankings, but thanks to the the librarians at UIUC, this wonderful site has links to many, many, many different rankings, including ones that let you make your own rankings. There's also rankings of some of the more important non-academic features of colleges, too. Does college rank really matter?
posted by Jos Bleau on Aug 23, 2003 - 20 comments

The Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild began in 1992 when two students of philosophy found their inner creativity in the midst of a dwindling academic job market. As it turned out, fulfilling gift giving needs proved to be almost as satisfying as probing eternal questions. They offer such items as "Freudian Slippers", "Nietzsche's Will to Power Bars", "Brainy Beanies", and "Dorothy Parker Martini Glasses".
posted by ewagoner on Aug 11, 2003 - 18 comments

Harvard weblogs, Warwick University Weblogs, University of Toronto blogs. Anywhere else?
posted by hoder on Aug 7, 2003 - 14 comments

College Chess Team Recruiting Scandal! Stacking the deck with grandmasters allegedly earning degrees. Ludicrous/pathetic consequences.
posted by crunchburger on May 23, 2003 - 8 comments

From the faculty at Salahaddin University in Kurdistan: "We as academic staff for the region's biggest Universities attended by different nations including Kurds, Turkman, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Arabs condemn this terrible threat towards our achievements and legitimate rights and express our complete refusal to any Turkish military intervention into the region's territory and affairs."
posted by Artifice_Eternity on Mar 3, 2003 - 3 comments

The Conceptual Metaphor Home Page at Berkeley offers a fascinating compilation of the metaphors underlying our everyday speech, such as Fear is Cold, Facts Are Points, Money is a Liquid, and Sexuality is an Offensive Weapon.
posted by oissubke on Nov 10, 2002 - 14 comments

Michigan: Land of Alternative energy? "DTE Energy [Detroit Edison] said Monday it has a deal to build and test a hydrogen system capable of generating more than 15,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity. The $3-million test project, funded by DTE and the U.S. Department of Energy, is to be operational in 2005. " Wayne State University is also jumping on the bandwagon. What, if anything, is your town doing (or claiming it will do)?
posted by PinkStainlessTail on Sep 24, 2002 - 15 comments

I just read that MIT will be offering free education via it's OpenCourseWare project (starting September 30th). This makes me very happy. Are there any other universities that offer similar services?
posted by Rattmouth on Sep 22, 2002 - 16 comments

The problem with America's colleges - Are schools of higher education too liberal minded?
posted by Macboy on Sep 9, 2002 - 76 comments

Harvard may ignore early decision and attempt to enroll students who have agreed to matriculate elsewhere. Is this the beginning of the end of early decision?
posted by oaf on Jun 8, 2002 - 7 comments

Reverse discrimination? Kathleen Carter, who is white, says that when she became chairman of the education department at historically black Delaware State University in 1995, she was told that she was usurping blacks' right to govern themselves and that whites in the department were trying to make blacks look bad. via Fark
posted by Rastafari on Mar 22, 2002 - 16 comments

Lisa Gier King - 'clearly willing and consensual sexual intercourse'

'Yahraus has consistently maintained that his sexual relations with King were consensual, a view shared by the police, the state attorney's office and the court'

or institutional misogyny?
Difficult to comment without seeing the film. Will releasing this film help either case? Hard to find anything online from the alternative viewpoint
posted by asok on Jan 30, 2002 - 4 comments

University campus communities are a logical place to give and receive support. Blood drives, counseling, vigils are occurring almost universally. Many university departments are sponsoring programs and panel discussions for the public on terrorism: a sort of rough draft of history. (See Princeton, Yale, JHU, and some with whom I have personal connection: UCSD (no annoucement online yet), Penn.)
posted by rschram on Sep 14, 2001 - 2 comments

A glimpse into the "Ivory Tower" - The online community at Swarthmore College is abuzz with reflections, debates, insults and demands for revenge prompted by the recent tragedies. After being physically threatened by a member of my college community after commenting that I thought that the Netherlands was a more "free" nation than the US, I've stopped going to the site myself; however, a look at the forum may demonstrate that such reactionary thought isn't limited to "middle America" or the "unenlightened," as some intellectual snobs/idealists seem to think. (Swarthmore was tied with Amherst as the number one liberal arts college in the country according to U.S. World and News Report.)
posted by surblimity on Sep 13, 2001 - 10 comments

Stripper, Reinstated. -- The stripper who posed for Playboy and went on national TV after she was kicked off the Cal State Fullerton cross-country team has been offered the chance to wear a Titan uniform once again.
posted by fooljay on Jul 2, 2001 - 10 comments

"Why is affirmative action in universities so unpopular when it seems to be working so well? Statistical studies show that the policy has improved racial diversity not only in the classrooms but later in life, in business and the professions, as well, and contributed to improved understanding among races." New York Times Op-Ed: Race and the Uses of Law. Will the Supreme Court decide that racial diversity is a compelling educational need that justifies affirmative action? Should they? (Educators are invited to contribute.)
posted by sudama on Apr 13, 2001 - 35 comments

M.I.T. to give education for free M.I.T. plans on Wednesday to announce a 10-year initiative, apparently the biggest of its kind, that intends to create public Web sites for almost all of its 2,000 courses and to post materials like lecture notes, problem sets, syllabuses, exams, simulations, even video lectures.
NY Times
posted by Brilliantcrank on Apr 4, 2001 - 13 comments

The market-model university: '...by looking at research on the health impact of tobacco, the "science" behind global warming or breast implants, or the effectiveness of a drug, we can see that it is not unusual for sponsored academics to fudge the data, suppress unfavourable evidence, and otherwise "torture the numbers till they confess"...'
posted by talos on Mar 15, 2001 - 7 comments

MIT spam study find instant wealth, sexy-coeds just a click away. A two-year M.I.T. study of unsolicited email, or "spam," has concluded that you can earn $50,000 in the next 90 days by sending e-mail from your home, which is located near a college where sex-crazed coeds are anxious to meet you.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Feb 23, 2001 - 0 comments

Beaver College has changed its name to the more dignified Arcadia University, after bearing the brunt of countless jokes and having their websites blocked by filtering software. I guess they made the announcement during a surprise student pajama party only to give the late night talk shows one last punchline.
posted by ewagoner on Nov 20, 2000 - 9 comments

"Instead of pretending that prohibition on college campuses is realistic, we should be investing in helping those young people learn to make healthy and responsible choices." -- August A. Busch III, chairman, Anheuser-Busch
posted by harmful on Oct 12, 2000 - 22 comments

Stanford, MIT, Duke, and UNC refuse to block Napster. Wahoo! Go Stanford!
posted by hobbes on Sep 22, 2000 - 4 comments

IU bans Napster again Thursday after Metallica (along with E/M Ventrues and Creeping Death Music) filed a suit against Napster. IU joins Yale (who banned again on April 14) and U. of Southern California...all of whom were mentioned in the suit.
posted by mc_barron on Apr 21, 2000 - 6 comments

The Supreme Court ruled today that university student fees may go to controversial groups in order to create a "marketplace of ideas". As a member of a university student funding board (and as a member of "controversial" student groups, i.e. GLBT groups), I've been eagerly awaiting this ruling all semester. The case began in 1996 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where three students challenged the use of mandatory student fees to fund campus organizations that they had politically and idealogically objections to. For the full text of the Supremem Court decision, visit campusspeech.org.
posted by hit-or-miss on Mar 22, 2000 - 1 comment